Goodbye people with MESNAC's smart factory

ERJ staff report (TP)

Moscow – At the Moscow Tires & Rubber Exhibition, MESNAC’s Vice President, Karol Vanko, spoke with ERJ on 22 April about their new smart factory as it tries to maximise levels of automation in the tire industry.

Vanko said this development means storage of raw materials, the feed of raw materials in the mixing area, handling of tires inside the plant, and the storage of cured tires after the process will all be automated.

“This is something we’d really like to improve,” he said. “We want to offer new customers smart plants – reduced number of people and costs – and reduce the mistakes people make because of the program software.”

The company is also developing a “special filter in the mixing area”. This will “eat the bad smells” produced and Vanko calls it a “small revolution”.

“We will present many more details at next year’s exhibition in Köln,” he said. “We need some time for testing. This is our top product for the year and is a new generation of filters.”

Vanko said it’s been in the development stage for more than one year.

In terms of the show and Russia in general, he explained that MESNAC has years of experience in the country and has attended the exhibition many times.

They “know what to expect” and “don’t expect to be as busy as Köln” because the Moscow event is “completely different”.

On the subject of retreading, Vanko said: “It is quite popular here in Russia. And I hope we will find more potential customers.

“MESNAC is able to build a complete factory for the retreading of truck tires."

Retreading has grown in popularity because Vanko believes the quality of tires is growing.

“Before it was not quite popular as the quality of the carcass was not so good.”

Now the basic tire in Russia is “good” and “tire producers guarantee that the carcass can be used a second or third time”.

Finally, Vanko discussed the show’s opportunities: “If we find one to three new customers from this area of retreading or mixing – it’s OK, I will be happy.”